Imagine if federal Judge Shira Scheindlin had ripped off an orphan’s inheritance, or pilfered cash from the courthouse cafeteria. She’d be bounced from the bench in a New York minute and face a criminal rap, too.

Yet she did something far worse by corrupting the justice system and smearing the Police Department during the mayoral race, and all she gets is an embarrassing rebuke. Her punishment ought to fit her crime.

Scheindlin’s conduct on stop-and-frisk was so blatantly biased that her August ruling was anti-climactic. The only suspense involved her “remedies,” including a monitor, which she discussed before she announced her decision.

Hey, let’s have a trial before we hang the NYPD.

By booting her from the case and blocking her cockeyed orders, the appellate panel stops the damage. But it can’t turn back the clock on a campaign where she fanned the flames of anti-police ignorance and boosted Bill de Blasio, the loudest voice in the pack.

Scheindlin’s corruption started in 2007, when she encouraged lawyers in another case to file a suit on stop-and-frisk. “Why don’t you bring a lawsuit?” she said. “You can certainly mark it as related.”

That meant she would get the case. Weeks later, the lawsuit was filed and, presto — it landed in her courtroom.

Her scam was only beginning. The nine-week trial ran through last spring and mocked fairness as Scheindlin was both judge and jury. She interrupted witnesses to ask questions, creating a record she could cite to rationalize her ruling. She gave media interviews — an ethical no-no.

Most appalling was the “expert” testimony she embraced. On the sketchy evidence that a mere 10 police stops over nearly a decade were improper, she leaped to find that more than 4 million stops could have been tainted.

Meanwhile, she refused to hear testimony showing that stop-and-frisk helped catch criminals and drive crime to record lows, saying that was beside the point.

Indeed it was — if her point was to handcuff cops and elect de Blasio. Consider the impact on the campaign.

Quinnipiac polls had found New Yorkers almost evenly split on stop-and-frisk. In May of 2013, for example, 46 percent approved and 49 percent disapproved.

That poll found Christine Quinn leading the Democratic field with 25 percent, with de Blasio tied for third at 10 percent. Holding crime down was a major topic, with Quinn promising to keep Ray Kelly as commissioner and Bill Thompson promising to hire 2,000 more cops. De Blasio’s rancid attacks on Kelly were not paying dividends — yet.

By late summer, the script was flipped. Constant headlines about Scheindlin’s expected ruling, and a suspect brief filed by US Attorney General Eric Holder supporting a monitor, kept the anti-cop pot boiling. So did two bills moving through the City Council. One would create an inspector general, and the other would ban racial profiling, which already was illegal. Mayor Bloomberg denounced both and threatened vetoes.

On Aug. 12, Scheindlin issued her ruling, which, no surprise, included a monitor to supervise the NYPD. Ten days later, the council overrode the mayor’s veto on both bills.

The frenzy amplified de Blasio’s attacks on cops and he suddenly surged into the lead for the first time. He stood at 30 percent, with Quinn at 24 as Anthony Weiner collapsed amid a new sexting scandal.

The public mood on the police also shifted. Disapproval of stop-and-frisk soared to 60 percent and approval fell to 31 percent. Among those who disapproved, the largest chunk, 34 percent, favored de Blasio.

In the August poll’s press release, Quinnipiac’s Mickey Carroll described the shake-up: “Two related issues which seem to resonate with Democratic voters are stop-and-frisk and the creation of an inspector general for the New York Police Department. US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin did her part for the voters by appointing a federal monitor for the NYPD.”

From then on, de Blasio often cited Scheindlin’s ruling to justify his anti-police agenda and never trailed again. Quinn and Thompson started aping his attacks, but de Blasio won the Sept. 10th primary with 40 percent, avoiding a runoff.

The drama over, Quinnipiac polls soon started reverting to their longtime balance on stop-and-frisk. In late October, 48 percent found its use excessive, while 45 percent saw it as acceptable. By a margin of 2 to 1, voters now say keeping crime low is more important than changing stop-and-frisk.

The election is Tuesday, but there is no need to guess how Scheindlin will vote. She already did.

Obama’s Pants on fire

A friend writes: “I think Bambi’s ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan’ ranks right up there with, ‘Read my lips, no new taxes,’ and, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman,’ as unacceptable presidential lies of our time.”

That observation reveals Obama’s challenge. George H.W. Bush lost after breaking his tax pledge, and Bill Clinton survived the stain of Monica but never escaped it. Obama won’t be on the ballot, but his second term is sinking like a stone.

His approval rating is 42 percent and probably hasn’t bottomed out. The ObamaCare Web site is a clunker, but worse news will come when it gets fixed. There will be more and more “ObamaCare losers,” meaning people who lose their insurance because of his lie and his law. Their stories of higher prices, if they find insurance, will reinforce negative opinion.

That will cause a stampede of Democrats up for re-election to run from him. Self-preservation being the prime political instinct, Obama could find himself a very lonely man.

No problem for him — he doesn’t like other pols anyway. In fact, he doesn’t like anybody, except the messiah in the mirror.

Yes, Prez eyed the ‘heave-Joe’

About reports that President Obama considered putting Hillary Clinton on his re-election ticket and dumping Joe Biden — feel free to ignore the White House denials. Of course he considered it.

As I wrote then, Obama had to think about a switch as the economy sank and his polls followed. It turns out he got all the help he needed from Mitt Romney.

Hardly worth the gamble

It’s almost impossible to find anyone who truly believes gambling is absolutely a good thing. Yet with Gov. Cuomo putting lipstick on the pig with promises about more money for schools, lower taxes and more jobs, a proposition on Tuesday’s ballot to allow casinos in New York stands a good chance of passing.

It won’t get my vote because there are better ways to get the same benefits. Fracking, for instance, would create more higher-paying jobs as well as more state revenues, without the problems of addiction and crime that trail casinos.

And what if the state made itself attractive by cutting the tax burden? Yes, just imagine — because that’s all we can do.

Finally, Waited for the higher ups to reverse that decision. How do we as afro americans living in the neighborhoods where crime is so high allow a white judge probably living in mayberry decide our faith. Her decision said leave them alone, as long as there just killing each other the cops should mind there business and some of our own people say good decision. wow shame on yall. What need to be done is retraining on proper way to stop and frisk P.S If this was going on in her neighbor hood do you think she would have made the same decision.

Scheindlin may have a big inappropriate mouth, but her ruling was subject to review and reversal and it was done. Comparing criminal behavior to a judge having a big mouth is a typical NY Post distortion to fire up the masses of m0r0ns who read the Post's lies and distortions.

Fracking instead of gambling? Sure, let's go to something the irreversibly destroys the environment, water supplies and the like and allows the crackers to escape responsibility for their destruction. Figures the Post would go for something their corrupt ownership supports and has investments in.

NYS's tax burden and unattractiveness to business will continue as long as the people allow it to continue. Fracking has proven to be an economic boon elsewhere across the country. Republican governors have lowered taxes, attracted new businesses and balanced budgets at the same time. Meanwhile NYS suffers with high taxes and a moribund business climate. If that's what NY'ers want for their future, so be it.

Yes, Barack Obama got all the re-election help he needed from Mitt Romney. In fact, Mitt Romney was nothing more than a tool of the Republican Party "establishment" which made sure that the 2010 Congressional election process and results would not be repeated in 2012. Conservatives and the Tea Party engineered the massive victories at all levels in 2010, in many cases, turning out the "establishment's candidate". The "establishment" wanted no more part of Conservatives and chose a candidate who consciously ignored Conservatives and the Tea Party. Mitt Romney was a clone of John McCain and was destined to face the same fate.

Oh my god Judge. You are going to let all the gun tilting bandits rule my neighborhood . Don't worry Judge you'll be forced off the federal bench you'll get your federal pension. Mr. Debalsio will put you on the bench in Brooklyn, and you'll be on your way to collect another funded state pension on the backs of law bidding taxpayers by letting all the bad guys go. When you out sick or on vacation a jury full of leberals or criminals that get picked will let him go.

@Cats01 Moribund business climate? You couldn't tell that by looking at NY City, Real Estate prices, corporate profits, falling unemployment rates, rising housing prices and other similar stats. Upstate is a cesspool that just sucks money from NYC, Westchester and Rockland Counties. Let them form their own state and render the land uninhabitable.

@Cats01 And anyone with a brain knows they will do it again in 2014. Your so called "Conservatives" and

Tea Party favorites are destroying American business with their idealogical garbage and sticking their nose into people's personal lives and private conduct. The best way to make sure the Republicans never have any influence again and insure the Democrats run everything for a long, long time to come is to support the Tea Party and the Conservatives who back their destruction of America. The business communities who supported them early on have seen the light. They now realize these m0r0ns care only about idealogical garbage and nothing about Americans and American businesses. Even the criminal Koch Brothers have seen that much light. Too bad you are so ignorant you can't see or accept the truth of what these people are.